CVE-2026-113721: medium-severity vulnerability in pypa virtualenv
virtualenv: Generated files can follow existing destination links
Published · Updated
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13Vexday Risk Score
No sign of exploitation. No public exploitation artifact known so far.
ssvc Trackcvss 4.5epss 0.1%
virtualenv is a tool for creating isolated virtual python environments. Prior to 21.14.9, ViaTemplateActivator._generate() removes an existing output only when Path.exists() is true, allowing a dangling symlink to survive and redirect generated activation content, while PyEnvCfg.write() opens pyvenv.cfg without first replacing an existing symbolic or hard link. Another local account that prepares final entries inside the destination can therefore cause environment creation to create or overwrite files outside the requested tree with constrained virtualenv-generated content and the invoking user's permissions. The destination parent must remain controlled by the environment owner during creation; concurrent parent-directory replacement is a separate concern. This issue is fixed in version 21.14.9.
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L
Affected products
pypa · virtualenvRelated CVEs — pypa virtualenv
In the same product, most dangerous first.
CVE-2026-113726HIGHvirtualenv activate runs commands from the environment name in zsh with PROMPT_SUBSTEPSS 0.3%CVE-2026-113717LOWvirtualenv: Pip seeding with download omits wheel digest verificationEPSS 0.3%CVE-2026-113722HIGHvirtualenv: Generated POSIX console launchers interpret destination paths as shell syntaxEPSS 0.3%CVE-2026-115586HIGHvirtualenv: Bash activator leaves the --prompt value unescaped in PS1 when promptvars is off, so prompt expansion later executes it (regression in 21.14.9)EPSS 0.3%CVE-2026-113776HIGHvirtualenv activation scripts run code from a path that contains a placeholder nameEPSS 0.3%CVE-2026-113725HIGHvirtualenv bash activate runs commands from an environment name with a backslash before $EPSS 0.3%